Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to change the current framework governing the opening of new schools.

The Schools White Paper, published on 28 March 2022, set out our intention to open new mainstream free schools in the areas where they are most needed, prioritising proposals located in Education Investment Areas. The department is currently reviewing the process for approving new free schools and will publish more details in due course. We will keep the wider framework for opening schools under review as part of our discussions on the proposals put forward in the White Paper.